Divergent is marketed as a Dystopia, but it seems to miss the fundamental part of dystopian literature, which is commentating on an aspect of society that could lead to it’s downfall. It’s supposed to be relevant to our current world to some extent. In The Handmaid’s Tale, misogyny/the dehumanization of women is talked about. In Hunger Games, it’s about our society’s love for violence and war/how easy it is to dehumanize people, which is relevant to today’s society. In 1984 it’s a lack of individual thought. What exactly is Divergent’s overarching message? How did we get to this world in which people are divided into 4 groups based on one personality trait?
Idk the series should’ve been marketed as maybe a fantasy or action but even then it misses the mark. It just seems very shallow. Like the characters are not well thought out at all, not even Tris and Tobias who are supposed to be since they’re divergent. The writing also isn’t great, it honestly just seems like the series was just a cash grab because YA dystopian literature was popular at the time
I agree it’s trash. But I do recall later books expanding on it.
Basically, the four personalities came up because of deliberate genetic engineering. Humans discovered how to alter genes and went nuts with it. They began programming smart people for academia, brave people for the military, honest people to be politicians… etc.
…And this completely fucked up human’s gene pool over time.
And so the setting of the story is actually an elaborate social experiment to try and heal humanity’s genetic health.
It’s discovered later that there are actually a shitton tons of “Divergents”. The protagonist was not even close to being the only one. But they were told to keep it secret because of…reasons that I don’t remember.
So yeah. There’s… a theme in there somewhere? I think? Maybe? Almost? That we humans should be careful playing with genetics? Or something?
Yeah. It still sucks, but it’s not AS stupid the premise initially suggests.
That’s actually… a surprisingly good explanation. And I like that the MC is not the only divergent
They use the word divergent to explain as being unique and special. From the perspective of those trying to fix human genetics, a divergent is basically a step in resolving the genetic mix needed. I think the point to not mention you were divergent to live a “normal” life in the society until generations’ worth of divergent mixing normalized the majority of the populace.
A lot of people hated on the third book, but it felt like to me it was the most “whole” of a book because you got a much needed explanation on the world-building.
I didn’t hate the third book I hated how the other two books didn’t make the path to the third book. For what I remember the third book went like a bombshell with little development for what it revealed. But the explanation gave some meaning to the stupidity that came in the other books.
So, the overarching commentary is about eugenics? And possibly also racism, kinda?
So the whole point was to make divergents in the first place?
Spoilers book 3 and I’m vague on details here but you find out the characters are actually in a post apocalyptic wasteland of the USA where they’re trying to rebuild the population in various ways to see which is best. If the results don’t work on a grand scale they destroy that city and move on to another test. Basically the aftermath of eugenics wars but you slowly zoom out into the world
I only read the first book. Does it ever explain why not fitting perfectly into one of these boxes gives her superpowers?
The third book. Almost all important stuff regarding world building is done in that book.
I agree with you. I had fun with the book. 🤷🏻♀️.
Yeah it was something like, the plan was to find divergent people but the groups liked staying split up and felt it was more peaceful that way. So when a divergent person came along they were suppressed and either forced to choose a group or run away. It’s been a while since I read the books!